Still on the to-do list

Interface guru Bruce Tognazzini has launched a list of the 10 most persistent bugs in computing.

"In some cases," he explains, "the bugs have outlasted the original developers, persisting so long that their successors may not even realize they are bugs—they seem the result of 'natural laws.'"

He's only come up with seven so far, but they include some doozies. No. 1, for example, is how desktop computers lose all the work you haven't saved when the power goes out. I'd come to accept that as just the "natural law" of how things worked but, now that I think about it, there's no real reason for it. After all, laptops and PDAs will go into emergency hibernation when their batteries run too low, but no such failsafes are built into most desktop systems.

Fortunately, Tog proposes both quick and long-term fixes for all the bugs he lists.

Since you're home anyway

CareerJournal.com: Should Telecommuting Spouses Be Responsible for Housework?

Worst manuals

Think you've had to wrestle your way through the worst-written (or translated) manual ever? Think again. The Technical Standards Worst Manual Contest truly scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

As the Christian Science Monitor's Jim Regan comments:

The 2004 grand prize winner earned its title on the weight of a mere two pages taken from an air conditioner manual which, despite its linguistic and visual shortcomings, still had the lofty goal, "to have the observance without fail to prevent the damage to harm and the property beforehand to the person who use this product and other persons." With helpful advisories that include, "Please note whether the installed stand hurt or not," and the truly baffling, "Please do not put the one embarrassed because it gets wet under the air conditioner," one is left thinking that putting the manual through AltaVista's Babel Fish might have netted a better result. Or, to quote the online translator, "One is left to think what it puts the handbook through the fish of AltaVista's Confusion might have covered a better result with nets." (Come to think of it, perhaps that's what they did do.)

The group is now soliciting entries for its 2005 competition.

Origami diplomacy

Who says there are no practical uses for origami cranes?

The Wall Street Journal reports:

TAK BAI, Thailand -- This Buddhist kingdom's often irascible premier, Thaksin Shinawatra, has ordained an unusual effort to pacify a restive Muslim minority: Make origami birds.

A flock of at least 63 million cranes -- one Japanese-style water bird of folded paper for each Thai man, woman and child -- will fly to the Muslim-dominated south on Thai air-force planes on Sunday, the birthday of the country's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

If all goes according to plan and postal authorities can pull off this mass migration, the bomb-bay doors will open and a symbolic payload of peace will flutter to the populace below.

Evading the knot

The percentage of Americans ages 30-34 who are still unmarried has nearly quadrupled since 1970, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Last year, 23 percent of women and 33 percent of men in that age group had never been married.

Overall, the percentage of Seattleites who have never been married -- 37 percent for women, 46 percent for men -- overshadows the national average, which is 22 percent for women and 30 percent for men.